With “Neruda,” director Pablo Larrain set out to make an anti-biopic and totally stumbled. Paraphrasing his words following Friday morning’s screening, Larrain wanted “to take on and reinvent the genre.” Well, on that front, I’m sorry to say he rather failed.

But don’t lose hope! Instead of smashing the genre, Larrain has gone and made a smashing film.

Recognizing the futility in trying to fit any life into a neat two-hour narrative, “Neruda” takes place over one short period in the life of Chilean poet, statesman and Nobel laureate known as Pablo Neruda. It starts in 1948, when the outspoken Communist is made an enemy of the state, and ends about 13 months later, when the writer and senator flees over the Andes to begin his exile.

Here’s where the “anti” comes in. “Neruda,” which is screening in the festival’s Directors’ Fortnight section, doesn’t just follow Neruda over this period; it’s also about (and narrated by) by Peluchonneau (Gael García Bernal), the policeman tasked with arresting the fugitive poet.

The writer and the cop circle each other up and down Chile, and there are plenty of the close calls, but the poet always seems to have the upper hand. He leaves behind dollar-store detective novels with personal inscriptions for his pursuer. Ever the writer, Neruda is author of his own pursuit.

Larrain and his film have loftier goals than simple cat and mouse, mind you. Peluchonneau is sketched as a total blank, a gray-suited predator who, over the course of his pursuit, will be stirred to life and nourished by the words of his prey.

The cop loses himself in Neruda’s work, with every word and poem erasing one more part of his identity. More than somewhat overthought and overwrought, it plays like a riff on “The Lives of Others” as written by Paul Auster, and doesn’t entirely work.

Luis Gnecco’s titular performance is the reason why the film itself does work. Simply put, he is astonishing. His performance is the film, and it is nothing short of miraculous.

As the poet, Gnecco is preening and vain and something of peacock — in short, human — and we cannot get enough of him. The film roars to fiery life every second he’s onscreen, and dulls when he’s not.

Gnecco’s secret, really the key to the character, is the understanding that the man himself is not quite ‘Neruda’. Though the name is a pen name (his passport reads Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto), there is something more there. In Larrain and Gnecco’s take, the persona “Neruda” is a performance, a role that Reyes slips into, that often overwhelms the very man himself.

The film’s immense success at fleshing out the distinction essentially dooms whatever aims it had on being a punk-biopic. Seeing one man search for another is fine, but in “Neruda”, the real fireworks come watching one man discover his own self.

The last time Woody Allen had Cannes' opening-night movie was 2011's "Midnight in Paris," which landed four Oscar nominations.

"Julieta"

Pedro Almodóvar's 20th movie focuses on women, an approach that has led to many of his most notable films.

"Loving"

Five years after winning Cannes' Critics Week competition with "Take Shelter," American director Jeff Nichols is back with a true story of an interracial Virginia couple fighting unjust laws in the 1960s.

"American Honey"

One of three female directors (versus 17 men) in the main competition, Andrea Arnold makes grimy, tough movies; her first film set in the United States deals with a runaway teenage girl and features Shia LaBeouf.

Kristen Stewart became the first American actress to win France’s version of the Oscar, the Cesar, for Olivier Assayas’ last film, “Clouds of Sils Maria.” Now she’s back (playing, um, a personal shopper) in a new Assayas film.

"Slack Bay"

Adventurous French director Bruno Dumont will be going to Cannes for the sixth time with this comedic film set in 1910; if it's like his other work, it'll be divisive.

A documentary made with the cooperation of living entertainers runs the risk of being a sentimental puff piece, but directors Alexis Bloom and Fisher Stevens have an ace in the hole is the acid wit of Carrie Fisher, who’s not likely to countenance a sappy look at her life with her famous mother.

Here's another icon: punk-rock godfather Iggy Pop, who gets the documentary treatment from Jim Jarmusch (who's also at Cannes with his fictional feature film "Paterson").

"Elle"

Dutch director Paul Verhoeven has made hits ("Robocop," "Basic Instinct") and bombs ("Showgirls"); his new film is a thriller starring Cannes regular Isabelle Huppert as a rape victim who stalks her assailant.

"The Last Face"

Sean Penn's fifth film as director, a romantic drama starring Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem, would likely be worth checking out even if it wasn't for the voyeuristic thrill of seeing Penn and Theron on the red carpet less than a year after their relationship broke up.

"The Unknown Girl"

The Dardenne brothers had a real movie star, Marion Cotillard, in the last film they took to Cannes, but now they’re back with their usual cast of unknowns and non-pros in this story of a doctor trying to discover the identity of a young woman who died.

"The BFG"

Recent Oscar winner Mark Rylance reunites with director Steven Spielberg for this Roald Dahl adaptation, one of the few Hollywood studio productions using Cannes as a launching pad.

"Aquarius"

Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho's 2013 film debut "Neighboring Sounds" was a small gem, raising expectations for his second outing as director.

"Dog Eat Dog"

With writer-director Paul Schrader (who directed "Affliction" and wrote "Taxi Driver") and stars Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe, the closing-night film in the Directors' Fortnight section promises to be combustible.